Language difficulties relate to delays in using words, the number of words being used,
the types of words being used, and/or how words are combined in sentences.

Early Language Milestone Examples:

By the end of 3 months, your child should be able to:

• Smile when you appear

• Make "cooing" sounds

• Quiet or smile when spoken to

• Seem to recognize your voice

• Cry differently for different needs

By the end of 6 months, your child should be able to:

• Babble and make a variety of sounds

• Use his or her voice to express pleasure and displeasure

  Respond to changes in the tone of your voice

• Notice that some toys make sounds

• Pay attention to music

By the end of 12 months, your child should be able to:

• Try imitating speech sounds

• Say a few words, such as "dada," "mama," and "uh-oh"

• Understand simple instructions, such as "Come here"

• Recognize words for common items, such as "shoe"

• Turn and look in the direction of sounds

By the end of 18 months, your child should be able to:

• Recognize names of familiar people, objects and body parts

• Follow simple directions accompanied by gestures

• Say as many as eight to 10 words

• By the end of 24 months

By 2 years of age, your child should be able to:

• Use simple phrases, such as “more milk”

• Ask one- to two-word questions, such as “Go bye-bye?”

• Follow simple commands and understand simple questions

• Speak at least 50 words

By 3 years of age, your child should be able to:

• Be understood 75% of the time

• Speak in three-word sentences

• Use pronouns (“me,” “you,” “it”)

• Have a vocabulary of 200 words or more (basically, more than you can count)

• Understand prepositions (such as, “put it on the table” or “put it under the bed”)

By 4 years of age, your child should be able to:

• Talk about activities at school or at friends' homes

• Answer simple “who,” “what,” and “where” questions

• Ask “when” and “how” questions

• Use pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they

• Use some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses

• Generate sentences with 4+ words

By 5 years of age, your child should be able to:

• Use sentences that have more than one action word, like jump, play, and get; may make some mistakes, like “Zach got 2 video games, but I got one”

• Tell a short story

• Maintain a conversation

• Talk in different ways based on the listener and place (e.g., shorter sentences with younger children, talking louder outside than inside, etc.)

(Source: The Mayo Clinic).

Language Goal Examples:

Labelling age-appropriate objects

Describing objects

Understanding categories

Using appropriate phrases to request, protest, commenting, and get attention

Understanding and using temporal (now, yesterday, next week, etc.), spatial (in, on, next to, etc.),
and/or quantitative (all, some, rest, etc.) concepts

Asking and responding to WH- (who, what, where, when, why) questions

Describing age-appropriate, multi-step processes (e.g., How do you brush your teeth? How do you make your bed?)